CF Industries Evaluates Dividend; Shares Surge 9.5%

By Johanna Bennett

CF Industries (CF) has been under pressure from activist shareholder Daniel Loeb to hike its dividend.

Well, it looks like the fertilizer maker was listening. CF’s share price surged 9.5% to $234.52 Wednesday afternoon after the company revealed in SEC documents that it plans to evaluate its dividend over time and expects over the next three years to have more than $2 billion available for “capital returns and growth” efforts.

CF, the largest maker of nitrogen fertilizer in the U.S., is also discussing with advisers shifting to a “master limited partnership” structure.

Third Point LLC, the activist hedge fund headed by Loeb, disclosed earlier this year a roughly 1.5% stake in CF. Later, the company boosted the dividend payment to $1 a share from 40 cents.

CF still has $1.7 billion remaining on an existing share repurchase program.

Rival Mosaic (MOS) in October struck a deal to buy CF’s phosphate operations for $1.4 billion in cash.

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